Tightrope Smile
Video, 2026
Reserve Ξ0.03Buy Now Ξ0.10
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About the artwork
This face came through and it immediately felt like a clown, but a dark and distant version. The spikes and the stare had a complete mood on their own, so I decided to make the loop do more with less. Instead of moving the face across the screen, I focused on the underlying motion using a push and pull zoom. It creates a precarious tension, like a forced grin. The soundtrack matches that feeling, using circus motifs with an uneasy edge to keep the loop circling.
AI generated music by Birddog
Audio explanation
Listen to Birddog discuss this work.
Diego Torres, also known as Birddog (born 1988, Zacatecas, Mexico), is a California-based graphic/UI designer and AI artist working exclusively with AI-driven digital media. His practice explores identity, mortality, surrealism, and the fractured nature of reality, using glitched aesthetics to rebuild familiar forms into evocative, dreamlike compositions and loops. Constantly refining his visual taste after more than a decade in professional design, Diego pairs traditional design principles with tools like Midjourney, ComfyUI, and Stable Diffusion to challenge ideas of permanence and reality. His work has been exhibited at IHAM Gallery (Paris), Casa NUA (São Paulo), and Artcrush Gallery (Belgium). Most recently, he earned third place in Claire Silver’s AI Art Contest #8. Drawn to the unpredictability of AI and the fragility of existence, he pursues a balance between control and chaos while evolving his eye.